McVitie's Green Tea Biscuits

Two things first: I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and was kind of disappointed! I think I prefer the original. Although if they made this into a movie with Colin Firth (and, heck, throw in Clive Owen too), then I would probably re-assess my position. Secondly, according to Sitemeter, I have finally crossed the 10,000 visit threshhold! Woohoo! I know that's totally small potatoes to most bloggers, but I am easily made happy, what can I say! So, thanks visitors!


The other day, I was feeling rather down after seeing the man off so I went on a shopping spree at Mitsuwa and some Chinese grocery stores back home. You know all those rules about how to avoid impulse buying? Yeah, not one of those held with me, which is how I ended up with this little bag of McVitie's Green Tea Digestive Biscuits. I loooove their regular digestives (not to mention the chocolate dipped ones and ESPECIALLY the chocolate caramel--the last time we were in London I think I bought about 5 tubes) and I usually like green tea anything, so into the basket they went. And look! The logo and everything. Okay, I know this photo doesn't give a good sense of scale, but check it out--these are really little.


See? Wee! You know I'm a sucker for anything miniaturized. There are about 8 in one of these little snack-sized bags. But, enough about that--how does it taste? Pretty good, actually!


The green tea filling actually tastes like green tea, which is nice (and a change from other green tea flavored snacks, which sometimes taste like white chocolate colored green). Of course, I love the digestive biscuit, no question about that. Together, they are a little bit sweeter than I normally go for, but with a hot cup of tea (naturally), they are a great snack. I have to go and buy more bags now (well, after I finish watching Ninja Warrior) so excuse me!

Souvenirs from Japan

Wednesday was the first day in...oh, I don't know, a year, possibly 2 that I actually bothered to pack a Mr. Bento lunch and I forgot to take a photo. Nuts! Also, we discovered during a lunchtime walk that there is such a thing as a cupcake truck. It's a brilliant idea, and I'm only annoyed I didn't think of it myself. I would show you a photo of the teeny red velvet cupcake I got (minis are a buck) but...no camera. But you can check out Cupcake Stop for yourself and see when they'll be near you!

In the meantime, my mom went to Japan recently and brought back all kinds of delicious snackies:


I love the packaging on this. Most of the snacks were variations on mochi, a chewy, sticky confection made out of glutinous rice flour. This box contained a whole lot of mini mochis.




They are wee and cute (a driving force in my life, if you haven't noticed already). The box came with four flavors, black sesame, green tea dusted with soy powder, strawberry (I think), and I can't remember the last flavor.


There was also an assortment of what I'm calling mochi dumplings; I've never seen anything like these before, and they were actually a little bit weird to me in texture. Not my favorite, although the black sesame was pretty tasty.


This is my favorite of the snacks--White Melody sandwich cookies. Again, beautifully packaged (and per the package wording "splendid in taste".)


It's two tuiles sandwiched with white chocolate, which I'm normally not a fan of, but together with the cookies...let's just say I wish I had a few more boxes.


Tea and tea snacks. Quite a haul, huh?


Not to forget though, this awesome amulet (I believe they are called omamori) from Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto. There's a little tablet inside it with a Buddhist prayer for good luck/protection. I have it hanging at my desk at work and so far, I've resisted the urge to open it up to see the tablet.

And that's that! We are off on a camping trip shortly (my first one); I am greatly looking forward to setting marshmallows on fire.

Treats from Switzerland

Yes, I did a bit of a disappearing act from this blog for a bit. It's been very hectic and busy around here....plus, I have to admit I have hardly cooked or baked in about a month because turning on the stove or oven heats the apartment up something fierce, and I'm just too tired.

However, I wanted to share some photos of these yummy snacks from Switzerland.


I received these as part of a birthday gift from the Man (I'm going to have to come up with a better nickname). He knows what I like. These are gianduja filled rolled wafer cookies (somewhat like the flute cookies you can buy at Asian groceries...but BETTER).


I'm not sure if these are manufactured year round, but these seem to have been packed for Sechselauten, that strange but wonderful springtime festival in which a snowman is blown to smithereens. I approve of such holidays.

We also had some visitors from Basel recently and they very kindly brought us some edible gifts in the form of Leckerli. By the way, that's my favorite kind of gift. You know, in case you were thinking of getting me something. I mean, edible--not limited only to Leckerli!



Leckerli is a type of cookie made with almonds, honey, and candied peel and glazed with sugar glaze. I always sort of equated it with gingerbread, and it certainly has a similar texture if not quite the same flavor. It is delicious and I've had to limit myself to only eating one or two squares at a time...because given the chance, I could probably finish the entire box at once. Plus, it came in a gorgeous tin with a Basel scene to remind me of the fun times we had there.

So there you have it. Nothing homemade, but everything tasty. Bonus? No stove or oven necessary. Simply open mouth and insert cookie(s).

Brazilian Pudding Pocky

I love going to the local Chinese grocery because they have an entire set of shelves devoted to different varieties of Pocky and Pretz. (If I had remembered to bring my camera, I could have shown you the glories of the Shelf, but....I don't have that kind of foresight.)

Anyway! So we were there to pick up more pork belly for the zongzi we were making (more on that in the next post) but of course, I got distracted by the Pocky. And, lo and behold, stuck between the Men's Pocky (bitter!) and the Strawberry Dessert Pocky was a new flavor--Brazilian Pudding.

Judging from the photo on the box, I assume that it was supposed to taste like some sort of caramel pudding or flan. I'll note here that my mother only saw the toucan and assumed it was supposed to taste like...tropical bird.



Pretty! Not as pretty as the dessert or decor lines of Pocky, but check out that swish pattern. The verdict on taste?....well, it tastes kind of coconutty but not really pudding-like. Anyway, pleasant and harmless, although this does not place in my Pantheon of Pocky.